The Midnight Run

Last night around 8:00 pm, I gathered at the Rutherford Campus chapel along with about 13 other students to help with the Midnight Run. Some faces were familiar, some were not, but I'd like to discuss the event because it left such a lasting impression on me. The 14 of us spent two hours sorting through clothes, making sandwiches / snack bags, and loading everything onto a Felician College shuttle. After everything seemed to be in place we piled onto the shuttle bus and headed off to New York City to give away clothing, food, shoes, and toiletries to the homeless.

Our first two stops only had two or three people, but our third, and final stop of the evening had several. We piled off the shuttle taking boxes of toiletries, and coolers of hot coffee and homemade turkey noodle soup, and grape juice. People lined up outside the shuttle for clothing, socks, underwear, and shoes. Three people (+ Father Tom) stayed on the shuttle to hand out goods. The rest of us talked to the people to find out what they needed. I, along with Penny - another RA, helped dole out soup into cups for people. I must have given out 80 cups of soup and people kept coming back for more. It was a cold rainy night. I'm sure the coffee and soup helped keep people warm.

What amazed me most about the experience is that, honestly, most of the people only took what they needed. If they had good shoes on, they didn't ask for shoes. The other thing I noticed, since I was on soup detail, was that a lot of people only wanted a half a cup. I asked them why and they said they could only eat a half a cup. The comment reminded me of a story I read about Jewish people that were liberated from the concentration camps: when a person has had very little, or barely nourishing food for long periods of time, food in large quantities can make you quite ill. The entire event left me feeling a little warm and fuzzy inside because I really feel like I did something to help somebody. Maybe it wasn't a lasting impression. Maybe those people won't remember me, but it doesn't matter. The important thing is that they remember that somebody was kind to them when they were down on their luck.

When I got back to campus last night, I sat down outside the dorms at the top of the stairs. I tried to imagine what it would be like to not be able to go in. Sure I was sheltered from the rain and it was cold. I imagined what it would be like to have to sleep out there on the ground. I sat there for about thirty minutes until I just absolutely couldn't sit there anymore. Thankfully I have the luxury of a warm bed and blankets, and won't be sleeping at the top of the stairs in front of some church in New York City tonight. My heart and prayers go out to those who are, though.

RA Training and Classes

It's been a busy few weeks so I'll go ahead and tackle everything that's happened recently.

RA Training started on August 21st. The first day was mostly a "what to expect" meeting. It was pretty informative. We also did an informative scavenger hunt in the rain. It had us running all over campus and finding out information about not only our teammates but about security, administration, and the campus itself.

The following day we went to a Ropes Course that was really difficult for me but I was so thankful for the support from my RA teammates. I'm absolutely terrified of heights, and the course instructor told us that all she asked us to do was push ourselves past what we thought we were capable of. I decided to try, when the day before I was 100% certain that I wouldn't even try if heights were involved, because I know myself. I made it up a 12 foot ladder and onto a pole before I couldn't make myself climb any higher but at least I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. It felt great to at least make the attempt. I learned a very valuable lesson that day. Usually I'm the supportive person in a team that is the constant voice of "You can do it!" The truth is, with the support of others, I was able to push myself farther than I thought I'd be able to. The day was one huge obstacle course for all of us that forced us to use teamwork, etc. It was a great team-building exercise. I'm happy that I could be a part of it.

The rest of the week was filled with info-sessions about policy, procedure, sexual assault, etc. There were also some fun activities, though, such as a group yoga session, a trip to the park, and walking up to Park Avenue to Ice Cream Charlie's (where I had the sinfully delicious Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Ice Cream). That stuff should be illegal it's so delicious!

My first week of classes was actually just two classes. Philosophy and Literature was a great way to kick off my semester. Abaunza's classes are always fascinating. This is going to be such an interesting class, I can tell already. I'm pretty psyched about this and left wondering.. Why wasn't I a Philosophy major again? Oh, right. I love graphic design also!

Core 400 was what it was supposed to be. It was a class that was instituted to help us integrate the Franciscan Values into our lives: Peace, Respect, Joy, Diversity, Service, Reverence, Compassion. We are required to do 20 hours of community service that's meant to somehow stretch us as a person. I'm doing mine through the Midnight Run. Last week there were no classes on Monday so I got off from Friday - Tuesday. I had Choir, and Cartooning on Wednesday, both of which proved to be what I was expecting - fun and difficult. It's nice to be presented with a challenge this year.

The class I'm most excited about, though, is my Senior Seminar I, which I took for the first time yesterday. I'm so psyched up about all the projects we have that in typical Nyla fashion, I want to tackle them all right this very moment. I wish I could do them all at the same time and not lose my mind or let my GPA drop.

Back in NJ

Well here I am, back in Jersey. Katelyn picked me up at the airport Saturday night and she and her dad helped me move in on Sunday. (Huge thanks)

I took off on Sunday to visit a friend in Philly for a few days and got back last night. Isaac and I went to Park Tavern and had a couple of drinks + bar food dinner. I then came back to my room to try and decipher what to do with all my stuff! It pretty much looks like a train wreck at the moment but I have high expectations that it will be sorted out within the day. I'm meeting Angel for lunch and have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me with RA training and finishing unpacking! I'm totally excited for the year to start already...

Shaun's Birthday

Yesterday was Shaun's birthday so I went with Shaun & Ash to meet Aaron & Erin in Ft. Worth as it was also Erin's birthday. We hung around in Ft. Worth for a while waiting on the elephant parade that seemed like it was never going to arrive so we walked down the street to the Barnes & Noble where I just had to have a Green Tea Lemonade from Starbucks. By the time we got back up to Pirahna it was gone (just to tell you how hot it was). Those things are really refreshing... (Thanks to Katelyn for the discovery of the worlds best summertime drink)

All in all it was a fun trip into Ft. Worth to hang out with some friends. I've discovered endless amounts of new and awesome food, as well as new and awesome people here in DFW. It's a shame that the summertime heat tends to keep me away from the area. I think next time they should totally come up to NYC to visit me!

Also this summer I've discovered a brand new musical obsession! Bow down to Mt. Eden. (That's right bow people...)

Go watch and join the obsession:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIEEIif21g4

Summer 2010

This summer has been a bit of a whirlwind. I've managed to pack every single emotion possible into one summer.

Firstly there is the immense joy that I felt at the beginning of my summer break. Not only did I get to spend a great deal of time with one of my friends, Katelyn, and get to know her family, but I also got to spend nearly a week in New York City at the Marriot Marquis in Times Square with my mom who came up for a continuing education seminar. How lucky were we that it happened to be the weekend of my 29th birthday?! Well Wednesday Mom arrived and Katelyn's mother took off early to drive us into the city (Isn't she just a saint?). Wednesday night we walked around Times Sq. and mom took in the sights of the city (and no wonder being as she's from Georgia). She's never seen anything quite as busy as NYC. We probably walked 20 miles from Wed. night til Sunday night when we both took separate flights out of Newark Liberty International bound for different destinations (sad face). Thursday was quite eventful! Mom got out of the conference a bit on the late side, but we decided to make the long trek to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We took the subway up to Central Park and decided to take the foot path all through Central Park. By the time we got to the Met we only had a couple of hours to walk around before high tailing it back to the subway as fast as we could (exhausted as we were for the 7 miles we walked). We got back to the hotel, changed clothes and grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading off to see the Phantom of the Opera.

I have to linger here for a moment because I'd never been to a Broadway show and neither had she! It was phenomenal! How is it that I didn't do this before?! I've never seen anything quite so amazing! The songs were simply moving. The theater itself was breathtaking, and I thought I was going to jump out of my pants when the chandelier fell! The effects were stunning... I'm so glad I listened to Katelyn about the back rows being the best seats in the house also... They had to be! You could see and hear everything so very clearly! From the candles rising out of the mist, to the echo of the phantom throughout the theater I can honestly say that I've never seen anything quite so wonderful in my life. This was definitely the highlight of the trip for me (and for mom).

Friday was another busy day. Eric came into the city to meet my mom and we went to the Statue of Liberty, some famous bar i'd never actually heard of where the staff was nice enough to take a picture of the three of us having a beer, Ground Zero, Ellis Island, and then off to Bleecker Street to the Blind Tiger on Eric's recommendation! They had the most awesome microbrewed beer there. Eric and mom made bets on whether they could finish their second beer by the time I finished my first.. (Yes they did) I tend to drink beer slowly. (lol)

Saturday morning we got up, packed and caught a shuttle back to Newark Liberty International and from there we caught another shuttle to a different hotel (slightly less grand) was the Howard Johnson's in Newark, where I have to tell you folks, you need to try the greek pizza in their cafe because it beats anything I've ever eaten in NYC. After we got settled, ate our pizza and took a short nap, Isaac picked us up and we met Eric in Rutherford, NJ at Eros Cafe where we had awesome greek food and melon hookah! (Happy Birthday to me!) After our bellies were full we headed on over to Park Tavern where we celebrated my birthday properly with Blue Moon beer all around! Also, it was somebody elses birthday that day! I know because they were singing happy birthday via karaoke! How exciting right?

Sunday was sad as mom and i got up at the crack of 11 am and checked out of our hotels. We hung around in the airport til 1 or 2 pm and went our separate ways. She went back to Atlanta and I took off for the DFW Metroplex. I arrived in DFW feeling a little uneasy, really hot (it was 100+ already), a little nervous to see a friend I hadn't in nearly 5 years, a little excited to see a few other friends I saw last summer on my trip into DFW, a little sad that one of my friends is no longer with me, and fairly depressed at the prospect that one of my friends turned out to be such a jerk and I no longer speak to him, and for that matter nor do half his other "friends."

Christine picked me up at the airport and I got back to her apartment to meet and greet her two kids (Curtis age 4 & Marie age 1.5). I hung around with George and Christine and was quickly tossed into the stressful world that is (even though I'm not) being a mother. Every single day Christine wakes up, gets her caffiene on, gets her kids out of bed, dresses them, plays with them, teaches them, yells at them for whatever they're doing wrong, feeds them, puts Marie down for a nap, spends a learning hour with Curtis, plays outside in the 105 degree heat with Curtis for 2 hours, gets Marie up, feeds her husband, children, and myself dinner, cleans the house, does the dishes, bathes her kids, puts them into pajamas and into bed, cleans the house again, puts her husband into bed, sits down to have two beers and then finally is able to tuck her own self into bed. How on earth can one person do it all?! I think she's superwoman. I'm beginning to think I'm simply not cut out for motherhood at all. She loves her children but I think she misses her alone time. She never gets to do anything but be a mom. Half the time she gets dragged out of bed at random hours of the night because of nightmares or dirty diapers or simply that Curtis refuses to sleep. It's been an interesting look into the life of a stay at home mom. I can tell you folks that you haven't worked until you've been a housewife. (I'd rather have a job than do everything she does in a day.)

I also spent a great deal of time hanging out with some old World of Warcraft friends, Shaun & Ash. It's been great fun even though it sometimes reminds me of the friend that is no longer a friend since we were all mutual friends. Sad, but happy at the same time. I'm pretty sure he was a sociopath anyway. (like 99.999%) We hang out and talk about our old guild and talk about what they're doing in WoW now and sometimes I play a friends account since I gave mine away. It's certainly been the least stressful period of my summer.

I was supposed to go visit a friend that recently lost his wife and help him take care of his kids as well as to teach him how to cook for them. He doesn't seem to be ready for the tasks I was prepared to teach him and sort of ignored my calls most of the summer. I hope that his depression isn't sinking to new lows, but I fear it is. I hope he is doing ok and continue trying to call to give a few uplifting words, even if he's not ready to move out yet or even learn how to cook. Apparently this month the local neighborhood church decided to help him out and they do a lot of his cooking for him during this time of great grief. He's taking great care of his kids, but not so much of himself. I truly hope he is ok and I hope he calls me whenever he needs a friend.

And so that brings me to the conclusion of my summer break (sort of). I leave to go back to New Jersey next week: a little less stressed, a little happier, a little lighter, and with a totally new hair color(s). Look out Felician College... I'm coming back!

Summer Break

Summer break is here and the swimming pool is open at Katelyn's. I'm so excited to have had my first swim of the season! Tomorrow I plan to get up early, do 50 laps in the pool (back and forth) and some light aquatic gymnastics! I'm in the mood to get back into shape this summer, but mostly I'm just happy that summer break is here. I know I've been on break since May 13ish but it hasn't really felt like break until now.

After school was over I ran the box office for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" four or five days (I forget how many), plus all of Katelyn's graduation festivities. I really have just been worn out. I hadn't had time to grieve, and I barely had time to sleep in the last few weeks so my body is finally getting back to its normal rhythms after a solid week of 8+ hours per night.

All in all I'm glad this school year is over. I'm looking forward to next year. Next year is a new year, a fresh start, and hopefully less riddled with problems. I'm very optimistic all in all.

The Rise of the Moon Flower

A long time ago, when the earth was newer, wilder and untamed, existed a flower. Every evening she would slowly awaken as the inky darkness of nightfall overtook the brilliance of day, and the creatures of night arose from their daytime hibernation to roam the forests and grasslands of the planet. 

At first, her petals were twirled together so tightly, closed. At first appearing as though she were a tiny star on a vine. As the moon rose slowly in the sky, she would unfurl her petals, as if she were taking a stretch, sending her silent regards to the glowing moon in the velvet covered sky. "Good evening, little flower," the moon seemed to say. And she replied by opening her petals wide to reveal the beauty and quite feminine grace that only she, the moon flower, possessed.